More stringent regulation of short-term consumer credit is inevitable, though the likes of Zip Money and Afterpay will be encouraged to rely on a code of practice, if the findings of a Senate committee are followed through.Hearings into "Credit and financial services targeted at Australians at risk of financial hardship" by the Economics References Committee of the Senate have resulted in conclusions informed mainly by the critiques and wish lists of consumer lobbyists and friendly academics.ALP and Greens Senators comprised four of the six members of the committee, with Chris Ketter (Labor, Queensland) in the chair.The Banking Royal Commission did not contemplate marginal credit service providers such as payday lenders, consumer leases, and debt advice firms, the report of the committee explained. "Although many Australians do not interact with these products, they loom large in the financial lives of lower income Australians and dominate the casework of financial counsellors and credit lawyers." Some products, such as consumer leases and payday loans, "are clearly targeted at low income Australians who do not have access to other credit products," the panel of six Senators said."The evidence before this committee (as well as the public record of regulatory actions) shows that there are real issues with the business models and business practices of providers in this sector."That is plainly different from the risk posed by other providers, such as those in the buy now pay later sector, whose products are marketed to a much broader range of Australians."What these products all have in common, however, is the oversized risk they pose specifically to Australians in financial hardship. The committee heard from financial counsellors and credit lawyers about the financial troubles that affect too many vulnerable Australians."Bolshie language permeates the report.Some have tried to paint those in financial hardship as victims of their own poor decisions. The evidence to this inquiry does not support this. "The intractable maths of low income earners' family budgets pushes them towards the marginal credit products that were examined over the course of this inquiry—products such as payday loans, consumer leases and, in the end, debt management firms. Government can and should improve the terms under which these products are offered."Key recommendations included:•    introducing the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Small Amount Credit Contract and Consumer Lease Reforms) Bill 2017 exposure draft released by Treasury, with its passage facilitated by the government;•    development of an industry code of practice by the 'buy now pay later' sector;•    compulsory membership of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority for all credit and debt management, repair and negotiation activities; and •    amending the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 to contain strong anti-avoidance provisions that are capable of capturing both new, emergent credit-like products, and attempts to disguise the nature of existing credit products.